


The Definition of Not-Leaving

by TooGoodToBeBad



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route, Just not Crimson Flower that's not canon, Mentioned Black Eagles Students (Fire Emblem), Post-Black Eagles Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Post-Church Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Post-Game(s), You can pretend it's Verdant Wind if you want, silver snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26951047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TooGoodToBeBad/pseuds/TooGoodToBeBad
Summary: “I just decided it wasn’t for me. I’ve been thinking of doing my own thing,” the words felt like lead on his tongue, laden with poison and heavy with longing.“Really?” her eyes lit up, oblivious to the sinking of his heart. “That is so cool! So where will you go?”“Away,” he said simply.On his way out of Fódlan, Felix finds himself in the company of the one person he doesn't want to say goodbye to.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 14
Kudos: 33





	The Definition of Not-Leaving

Felix really wasn’t in the mood to be seen by anyone. But the Goddess had proven on multiple occasions that she cared not a whit for the whims of moody and grumpy swordsmen, especially moody and grumpy swordsmen who only ever attended services under threat of being banned from the training grounds. It was the only thing that could explain how, despite the overabundance of inns in Fódlan, he somehow ended up in the same inn as her - the one person he _really_ didn’t want to see right now.

“Hi, Felix!” she chirped excitedly as she slid into the seat across him like he’d invited her to join him (he probably would’ve anyway, but it wasn’t good to be presumptuous). “It’s so good to see you! It’s been a while.”

It’d been nearly five months and two weeks since he last saw her, but he wasn’t really counting. “Annette,” he nodded before taking a small bite of stew. “It’s been a while. What are you doing all the way out here? This place isn’t exactly walking distance from Fhirdiad.”

“Oh, no, I’m actually on the way out from Fhirdiad,” she beamed at him with her bright blue eyes and a vibrant smile that would have left him weak in the knees had he been standing up. 

He raised an eyebrow at her. “And where are you going?”

“I’m going back to Garreg Mach.”

“Why? Are you going back to study again?”

“No, the Professor told me I wasn’t allowed to enroll again.”

He could feel a sly smirk tugging at his lips. “Did you ask?”

From across the table, she shot him a pointed look that only caused his smirk to widen. She only scowled at him some more before something in her expression softened and a delicate giggle escaped her. “Definitely not.”

“So why are you going back?”

“Well,” she clapped her hands with childish glee. “I’m going to teach there when the Academy reopens! The Professor and Seteth said I was welcome anytime, and it’ll be so nice to work with them again.”

He could see her smile fade and slowly turn into a pout, and he realized with a start that his mouth was set in a deep frown. “I get the Professor, but why would you want to work again with that stodgy bag of bones?”

“Felix!” she chided, and the sound of his name on her lips tightened something in his chest. “Seteth’s not _that_ old. He’s probably like 45 at most.”

“My point still stands,” he chuckled before putting away the last of his stew. 

She absentmindedly started twirling a loose strand of bright orange hair with her index finger. “I’ve always wanted to be a teacher,” she said dreamily. “I mean, not always. There was that time I wanted to be a princess, but for the most part, yeah, I think teaching would be nice.”

Her eyes drifted back towards him. All of a sudden they widened, and a faint pink bloomed across her cheeks. “Felix!”

“What?”

Her voice broke into a breathy giggle. “You’re smiling.”

“Huh,” he mumbled softly. “I guess I am.” 

The pause hung in the air awkwardly, and he watched her idly tap her fingers against the table. “Annette,” he said softly, and his breath caught in his throat when she met his gaze. “They’ll be lucky to have you teach there. I mean that.”

The pink on her face turned even more vivid at his words. “You’re just saying that,” she pouted again, and he could feel something fuzzy tickling in his chest at the sight of it.

“I don’t _just say_ things, Annette,” he scoffed. “You’ll be the best professor there.”

“I highly doubt that. Linhardt and Bernadetta will be there, too.”

He only sighed at that. “Well, in any case, I hope you’ll be happy there.”

“Oh, um, thanks, Felix. That’s really sweet of you, actually,” she said before she looked at him curiously. “But what about you, though? I don’t hear from you for months, and the next thing I know, you’re the talk of the town! I heard you abandoned your noble title!”

From under the table, his thumbs began to fidget nervously. She was sailing them into dangerous waters now, and she hadn’t the slightest clue. “I just decided it wasn’t for me. I’ve been thinking of doing my own thing,” the words felt like lead on his tongue, laden with poison and heavy with longing. 

“Really?” her eyes lit up, oblivious to the sinking of his heart. “That is so cool! So where will you go?”

“Away,” he said simply.

“Oh, like all over the world? That sounds so exciting! Will you go to Brigid? Caspar and Petra were telling me that it’s incredible there, but I don’t know if you like the beach. I’ve heard crazy stories about Dagda and Almyra, too-”

“Annette.”

“Hey, next time you’re in Fódlan, you should stop by the monastery and tell me all about your travels! I’d travel myself, but Mercie used to tell me-”

“Annette!” he nearly raised his voice at her. She stopped mid-sentence and looked at him expectantly, and his words died on his tongue. “I-I-I won’t…” he stuttered. “I’m not coming back.”

And just like that, her face fell from the exuberant high she’d been soaring on. “What do you mean?”

“What else could I possibly mean?” he said pointedly. She winced, and he immediately wished he could take back his words. “I’m leaving Fódlan. I have no intention of returning.”

When she spoke again, her voice sounded so small and fragile. “But why?”

“It doesn’t matter why,” he breathed.

“Well, I think it does!”

“You’re making a big deal out of nothing, Annette.”

She sputtered angrily. “Nothing? This is not nothing! You… I… this is not fair, Felix! You can’t just-”

“This is why I didn’t want to see you!” he snapped, and the color immediately drained from her face. Something dreadful settled in the pit of his stomach, and he reached out his hand to her. “Annette, I-”

He could only watch helplessly as she bolted out of her seat and raced out the inn. A slew of curses escaped him, and he anxiously rubbed circles into his temples with his fingertips. The weight of his words kept him glued to his seat while the one person he probably valued most slipped through his fingers again. His amber eyes turned towards the ceiling, as if the wooden beams had any answers written in them. Predictably, there was nothing there. Biting back another curse, he rose from his seat and made his way out the door.

As it turned out, she hadn’t gone very far. He spotted her a ways off from the inn, glowering at a beautiful field of flowers. She was crying - that much was apparent. The closer he got to her, the more he could make out the tremble in her breath. “Annette,” he called out.

She flinched at the sound of his voice. “Just go away, Felix. And don’t come back. That was what you wanted, right? Well,” she paused for a heartbeat and a half. “Don’t let me stop you.”

Each word was a knife to his damaged heart, already on the verge of falling apart. “I’m sorry, Annette. I didn’t mean to say that.”

She turned to face him, and his throat tightened at the sight of tears in her eyes. “But did you mean it?” she glowered. Her voice, usually bright and cheery, now dripped with something raw and bitter.

He let out a defeated sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose with his gloved fingertips. “I did. I didn’t want to see anyone at all, but you were the one person I really didn’t want to see.”

“You’re so selfish. You thought you could just drop off the face of Fódlan without so much as a proper goodbye? Without so much as a thought for how you would hurt the people you were leaving-”

“I thought about it; I really did,” he grimaced. His words were never particularly pretty, but even he could hear how weak and pathetic he sounded. “I didn’t want to hurt you with another goodbye.”

“That is so stupid, Felix.” 

“Look what’s happening now,” he pleaded as he stepped closer towards her. “But for what it’s worth, I’ll miss you the most.” 

With a few hesitant steps back, she retreated from him. “Can you at least let me know why?” her voice came dangerously close to breaking at the edges.

He faltered at her words and began to choke on the cloying ache that was grabbing him by the throat. “Because I don’t have a home here anymore. There’s no place for people like me here. I’ve lived by the sword for so long that I don’t know what to do without it. Every day for the past few months I’ve woken up in a lonely, empty house with no sense of purpose, with no one around for me to call a friend.”

He could feel his mouth start to twitch, the mask of practiced impassivity falling apart. “Faerghus is full of ghosts, Annette, and I’m slowly turning into one of them.” 

She slowly took a step forward to close the distance between them. He found himself unable to speak or pull away when she wrapped her fingers around his. “Felix,” she said softly. “You could’ve let me know. I would’ve been there for you. Why didn’t you write to me, let me know how you were feeling?”

“Because you seemed so happy the last time we spoke. And I haven’t been, not for a long time. No sense in dragging you down with me.”

With a choked cry, she fell into him and wrapped her arms around him. “Is there nothing I can do to make you change your mind and stay?” she whispered into the crook of his neck as his arms hung uselessly at his sides. 

“Not unless you plan on starting another war.”

A strange sound, almost a mix between a laugh and a sob, rushed past her lips and over him. She lifted her face to look him in the eye, and his willpower was slowly succumbing to the vibrant melancholy of her eyes. “I wish you didn’t have to go, Felix. Our friends, they’ll miss you.”

His voice nearly broke. “I didn’t get along with most of them. I doubt they’ll miss me.”

“But I will,” she mumbled with a quiver in her voice. “And I don’t think I’ll ever stop. Felix, I’ve missed you every day since we went our separate ways. I’ve always held on to the little sliver of hope that we’d find each other again, but now...”

The realization hit him like a nasty blow to the head, the kind that left you rattled and shaken to the core. His breath caught in his throat, and in the silence that followed, he could feel with every heartbeat that the dam within him was about to burst.

He hadn’t realized it, but at some point he’d wrapped her in his own embrace. And he didn’t know if he had it in him to let her go.

“Please don’t leave me, Felix.”

His heart began to pound against the confines of his ribcage as she nestled herself against him. When he spoke, his voice sounded far away, even to his own ears. “But what else can I do?”

“Come with me,” she breathed. “We can go to the monastery,” her blue eyes, misty with tears, looked up at him dolefully, and he found himself unable to tear his gaze away from them.

“The monastery? What am I supposed to do there?” he almost wanted to scoff.

“I dunno. Cook, clean, garden, join the priesthood! Just,” she nuzzled her face against his chest, and he only just realized how the air around her just sort of smelled like apples. “Just don’t leave yet.”

He found himself idly running his fingers through her soft hair. “If it means that much to you, I can stay for a week or two,” he sighed.

She blinked at his words and cracked a tiny smile at him. “You really mean that?”

Something in him melted in the sunshine of her smile. “When it comes to you, I always mean it.”

A blush crept across her cheeks before she buried her face against his neck again. “How about three months?”

“One month.”

A bright and gentle laugh escaped her and she looked back up at him. “I’ll hold you to that, Felix," her eyes widened and started to sparkle with mischievous energy. “Oh! You should become a teacher!”

He shook his head at her like a petulant child. “Nuh-uh. I’d rather clean the bathrooms.”

She laughed once again, and for the first time in a long time, Felix felt like he belonged somewhere.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback and comments are appreciated!
> 
> I finally wrote something for the famed "teacher ending" of these two. I cannot help myself with these two.
> 
> It's hard to write Felix with emotions other than "soft", "annoyed", and "umm", so I hope he comes off okay in this.
> 
> I hope you guys liked this!


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